Brest. The French Variety.

Another blogging holiday. This time for a holiday, courtesy of Ryan Air's 1p flight deals, although children are still full fare (why?).
Brest, northwest France. Sadly it was bombed heavily in the second WW so most of the ancient city is now a grey concrete monstrosity. There is still some history hidden away; the castle and Naval museum (both closed due to renovations), and some random houses (all wreaks). So, not a lot really.....

However, we managed to have a good time and, miraculously, Josh started to sleep though the night! Who'd have though it 'eh? On holiday, away from home comforts and the familiar cot, managing to sleep through! Wooo hooo.

We seem to have come across two things:
1) he is momentarily not cutting teeth
2) we have gritted our teeth (excuse the pun!) and not run to comfort him the moment he cries, even waiting 10 minutes (oh the pain of waiting...it turns your stomach doesn't it?).

The latter point was parlty because of sleep deprivation and desparation - this HAD to stop. It turns out that he will, after a while, stop crying, then start, then stop and gradually, after a few more cycles, stop crying and go back to sleep. I think this is because he has mastered the act of re-finding his dummy and also we now know that he doesn't actually need milk during the night so it isn't the first thing we run to get when he cries. However, the gut wrenching urge to get up and go to him still gets me. I have to almost physically hold myself down....those maternal instincts have a lot to answer for!

On holiday we would do his usual bath time (shower, which he loved!) and then sleeping bag and bottle, then bundle him into the travel buggy wrapped up and with a rug over the top to cut out some of the light, then go out. He'd fall asleep whilst we walked to the restaurant then we'd enjoy a 'child free' evening meal. Amazing! What a superstar our son is! Even better, we'd get back and get him up, put him in the travel cot and he'd go off to sleep again!!!! Have we cracked this travel malarkey? There was no way we were going to sit in that hotel room all night or eat in their really over-priced restaurant each night, no, we were exploring the gastronomic delights of France. I say gastronomic in the loosest of senses. My best meal was a delicious thinly bashed-out rib-eye steak with thin, thin, crispy french fries in a little Italian place, although I have believe it was actually a french-serving-italian place. My worst was in the hotel restaurant - a tiny cod slice wrapped in bacon with a fried potato cake and salad, all for the over-priced price of about 15 euro! What?

I will upload some photos shortly. I'm just attacking the washing mountain and getting my head and diary back into the swing of things.

By the way, if you need all things baby, nappies, high chair, car seat, buggy, travel cot, etc, head to Asda for massive baby event. I have just picked up a Hauck buggy for £25 for my Mother to use. German made (I think) and, as M puts it, we could have 20 of them for the price we paid for our current one. Ok so it isn't a travel system but it's sturdy and light at the same time. Go grab those bargains girls!